Rickrolling remote control prank

This device is a prank or gag that [Eric Heisler] came up with. It will intercept IR remote control codes and play them back after a bit of a delay. The example he shows in the video (embedded after the break) catches the television power signal from a remote, then sends it again after about thirty seconds. This shuts off the TV and would be extremely annoying if you were unable to find the device. Fortunately (for the victim), [Eric] included a piezo buzzer that Rickrolls after sending each code. Just follow that tune to find the offending hardware.

He chose to use an ATtiny10 microcontroller. It looks like it’s realizing its full potential as the six-pin package use all available I/O to control the IR receiver module, an IR led, and the buzzer. It runs from a coin cell without regulation and the circuit was free-formed on a tiny surface mount breakout board which hosts the microprocessor.

Curious, it’s clear that the code he posted is somewhat compiled C because he used the r16 and r17 registers, which are a dead giveaway it was GCC. Did he write it in the Arduino environment and only post the assembled output, or did he mix and match compiled code and hand optimized code?

Most TV’s have IR codes for discrete on/off even if they don’t actually make remotes with those controls. They get used a lot by AV integrators and people w/ those fancy computer programmable remotes.
Google “Sony discrete IR codes” or “Pronto codes”. There are whole forums dedicated to tracking down these features, just check out http://www.remotecentral.com for example.

I once made a similar device called the “simpsonator” – It would automatically turn on the TV and keep switching to the channel where The Simpsons ran at 19:00 – to win the fight over channels in the dormitory kitchen ;) it was just a small atmega and an IR diodde.